SWIHA Blog

Have you been noticing communication issues, technological mishaps, or difficulty with your emotions lately? Yep, it’s true: We are in Mercury Retrograde until July 31st. Fear not! There is a simple ceremony that may help relieve some of the tension.

Smudging is an ancient Indigenous American ritual with thousands of years of history and the ability to powerfully cleanse energies. If you’re looking to reduce emotional and spiritual negativity in your body and living space, a smudging ritual is an excellent way to do so and Mercury Retrograde is the perfect time!

When she enrolled in college, she pursued Psychology with the hope of becoming a counselor and affecting major positive changes in the lives of others. However, Kim found herself sidetracked by her own low self-esteem and put off finishing her degree hoping that her marriage would bring her fulfillment.

Though that ultimately wasn’t the case, something else amazing happened!

Kim tell us: “I made really poor decisions for a long time, until the message about loving yourself resounded from everywhere. I had been living life as a victim, and then I learned that victimhood was a choice. I was powerful!”

After 30 years of working in the ASU library, Roann retired on a Friday evening and came to work in the SWIHA Bookstore the following Monday morning. She then enrolled in Western Herbalism, a two-year program that is one of the most comprehensive and rigorous herbalism programs in the country.

“People travel here from out of state to study herbalism here at SWIHA. I learned so much from the herbalism program. In fact, I drink rosemary tea every morning for memory,” reports Roann with great pride.

Also a graduate of SWIHA’s Spiritual Studies certificate, Roann is proud to say, “I was ordained as a minister in the very first class of students that KC Miller, the school founder, was able to ordain as ministers.”

While most people are singing songs and feeling merry and bright, we must be mindful that, for some people, the holidays are rather blue . . . or even gray.

As one who is coming up on the second anniversary of family tragedy (two years ago, our son took his life due to complications of PTSD), I’m especially aware that the holidays can be tough. Even well-intended greetings such as a simple “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” can trigger feelings of grief, angst, or even anger.

Just this last week, I was witness to such an incident. As I pulled up to my regular Starbucks location I noticed a woman having a full-blown meltdown over an innocent greeting given to her by a kindly gentlemen collecting for the Salvation Army. All he said was, “Happy Holidays!”

Thalia Ayres Randolph wants to set the record straight: she never set out to do any of this. Not the international travel, not being featured on one of the most popular reality television shows in America, not the dedicated work as a spiritual leader and teacher…

Exit, Stage Right

As a young woman pursuing a career in musical theatre in Toronto, Canada, Thalia was convinced that the performing arts were the foundation of her identity and would always serve as her path. Yet, performing on a professional level wasn’t exactly leaving her with a lasting sense of happiness, and she found herself pursuing solace through yoga and Reiki; as she strived toward the spotlight, her spiritual gifts were coming to light as well.

Before attending SWIHA, Deborah Brown was a professional college student in Maryland, a Community Health and Wellness Facilitator, and a Minister. After going through what she refers to as a “Damascus experience,” she felt a calling to seek something bigger— the pursuit of the “missing piece” keeping her from delivering her gifts to the public.

While Deborah had served as an entrepreneur in various shapes and forms for most of her adult life, the business journey had not always been completely satisfying for her. She had always had SWIHA in her sights, originally in the form of the Natural Aesthetics program at SWINA; however, Spirit had other plans for her and led her to the Mind Body Transformational Psychology Degree Program at SWIHA, where she would learn how to serve as a holistic healer and entrepreneur. “The Mind Body Transformational Psychology Degree called out to my Spirit because it had the components to feed me and fine tune my life's work in Ministry, Health and Wellness, Spirituality, and Entrepreneurship, as well as foster my leadership qualities,” says Deborah.

Cora Love was actually led to the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA). She was seeking, very diligently, an affordable program that covered multiple modalities. “Another effort I was following was being thwarted at every turn. Then, I saw SWIHA, which offered everything I was interested in, accepted financial aid, and was able to get me enrolled within days to start my two-year program, on-time, January 19, 2015.”

Cora went on to graduate from the Mind-Body Transformational Psychology program, with a concentration in Spirituality and a specialty in Hypnotherapy. “One of the most valuable things SWIHA taught me was that my spiritual gifts are real; they can be enhanced with study and practice, and I am more powerful than even I originally thought. I also learned that what most of us think we know and believe, we really, really don’t. Long-held beliefs can be shattered with a sentence, or an image.”